Yangon [Myanmar], April 4 (ANI): India and Myanmar are poised to strengthen their energy cooperation with several key initiatives in the works. According to Abhay Thakur, India's Ambassador to Myanmar, the two nations have numerous reasons to boost their energy partnership.

Speaking to ANI on Friday, he stated, 'We have a number of reasons why India-Myanmar energy cooperation would be more intense in the future...A coastal shipping agreement, which is in the works, would make this energy cooperation, particularly gasoline and diesel supplies, attractive for Myanmar.'

In addition to the coastal shipping agreement, Ambassador Thakur highlighted India's efforts to increase the volume of rupee-chart settlement trade and also emphasized the importance of collaboration in the solar energy sector.

'We are also working hard to increase the volume of the rupee chart settlement trade. We also have collaboration, including in particular, in the solar energy sector under the Joint Working Groups (JWGs) on Power. All of this, put together, has the potential of boosting India-Myanmar energy cooperation,' he said.

Highlighting India's swift response to Myanmar after a devastating earthquake struck the country on March 28, the envoy stated that India was among the first responders, providing aid within 24 hours.

Notably, more than 3,000 people died in the earthquake.

'We were the first responders, providing a helping hand to Myanmar in their time of need within 24 hours,' Ambassador Thakur said. 'Our assistance exceeds 1000 tonnes of a range of uh HADR8 material including gen sets, uh, kitchen sets, all kinds of humanitarian assistance and disaster relief (HADR) food meals ready to eat. We're also bringing in rice and cooking oil, we set up a field hospital for medicines, so there is a very wide-ranging response, and this has been noticed, uh, by the government and the people of Myanmar.

The Quad nations - India, the US, Australia, and Japan - have joined forces to provide humanitarian aid to Myanmar, contributing over USD 20 million in assistance.

'We, the Quad partners, have so far committed humanitarian assistance estimated at a combined value of over USD 20 million. Through our funding and bilateral efforts, we are delivering relief supplies and deploying emergency medical teams and supporting humanitarian partners working in Myanmar to provide care for those affected by the earthquake,' according to a Quad joint statement.

The statement expressed its condolences towards the extreme loss of life and destruction of infrastructure due to the already ailing humanitarian situation in Myanmar. (ANI)